1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to electronic content delivery and more specifically to intelligent targeting of invitational content to a user based on the user's previous activities.
2. Introduction
Targeted content delivery has long been an accepted means of conveying a desired message to an audience. Instead of creating a single message and delivering it to every member of the general public, content providers will attempt to identify the intended audience and shape the message so that it appeals to that audience. Once the content provider determines the intended audience they can target that audience by selecting the best content delivery channels. For example, if their intended audience is the residents of a particular city then delivering the message through the local newspaper or on a billboard in the city may be the appropriate channel. However, if their audience is a smaller subset of the population or is more geographically diverse such a delivery channel will be suboptimal. Content providers will also often target the content delivery by sculpting the content and appearance of the message for the intended audience. These techniques enable content providers to optimize their resources.
The development of digital content has enabled new techniques of targeting content to an audience. However, these techniques are often overly simplistic because targets are often selected based on a limited number of inputs. For example, if a user purchases a particular item on a website, additional related items can be suggested, or if a user visits a travel website, travel related content can be presented. Such methods are overly simplistic and fail to consider other important factors when targeting content to an audience.